


Because, Love

by semaphoredrivethru



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Snogging, Threesome - F/M/M, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-03 11:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semaphoredrivethru/pseuds/semaphoredrivethru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cho has a problem. Fortunately, she's very clever and very good at sharing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Because, Love

**Author's Note:**

> Canon!Sue.  You have been warned!
> 
> Written for the Mary_Stew fest on LJ ages back. NO REGRETS.

Cho is in love with Ron Weasley.

He’s funny, wild and surprisingly intelligent – which shouldn’t have been a shock, since they don’t make just anyone a prefect. He likes to play with her hair, bother her when she’s trying to study as he’s bored and he draws nonsense patterns on the bare skin of her knee with the blunt tip of his finger. His nails are almost always dirty, his clothes too short and ragged on the ends and his red hair stands on end much of the time because he runs his fingers through it when he’s thinking hard or frustrated by something. 

Ron is loyal and honest, like any good Gryffindor should be. He’s always there for his best friends, but somehow he manages to find Cho when she need him most, which almost makes up for how he always goes to Harry first with his news and his problems. He brings her silly little sweets that never turn her into giant birds or make her sick, though one time he did eat one that turned his hair bright green, just to cheer Cho up when she’d had a particularly tough day. 

He writes her sweet and bumbling notes and calls her ‘Lady Cho,’ because she once told him that she was a lady and ladies certainly don’t do what he wanted her to do right there in the middle of the library. He doesn’t hold her hand in the halls; instead, he wraps one of his long arms around her shoulders and pulls her close until she can lean her head on his chest. He whispers naughty things in her ear when they’re right there in the middle of the Great Hall, trying to convince her to go somewhere more private. And when she does go with him, he touches her like he thinks she might shatter and kisses her like she’s the only person he’s ever wanted to kiss in all his life.

 

Cho is in love with Harry Potter.

He’s dark and weighed down by the expectations of their world, but he still laughs at Ron’s jokes and helps play Hide Cho’s Books when Hermione’s left to study because she doesn’t have the patience for their antics anymore. He’s serious and tough when they meet for DA meetings, but when he praises Cho, she sees that the smile on his face actually reaches his eyes for a change. And he buys small gifts for Cho, even though they always come with notes in his handwriting saying: “Love, Ron.”

Harry is very earnest and he always tries so very hard, except in Potions; but then everyone knows that he’s been taking remedial lessons as he’s so dreadful. Cho knows there must be more to it than that, however, as there’s no way someone that dreadful would make it into Professor Snape’s NEWT-level class and Harry doesn’t tell her otherwise when she asks about it. Cho doesn’t mind, though, because Harry still talks to her sometimes when no one else is around and he needs someone to just listen to him; Hermione’s so busy these days with revision for NEWTs even though they’re a year away and Ron is always so uncomfortable with anything but the simplest of emotions. 

He looks at her when he doesn’t think anyone else is watching. When Cho catches him at it, he blushes and suddenly remembers something pressing that needs to be taken care of elsewhere. Cho is glad that they’ve put the confusion of earlier years behind them and that they can be friends now, but she knows that there’s a new confusion there, lurking behind the smiles and between Ron’s careful yet still sloppy kisses.

 

Cho has one hell of a problem.

The first time she kissed Harry, it was awful and disappointing for them both. But the second and only other time was at the beginning of Cho’s seventh year, when someone had managed to smuggle alcohol into the school. Harry’d had just enough liquid courage that he was able to sidle up next to where she sat on a sofa in the Gryffindor Common Room, unsure as to why exactly Ron had insisted she come when he’d invited her in stammering words after a DA meeting. That time, Harry was slightly slow from the drink, but much more certain of himself as he’d twined their tongues together than the time before. But even after the best kiss Cho had ever had, Harry still ran away in the opposite direction of Ron’s approaching laughter

 

Ron had asked her out the next day. Cho had told him no, because she kept thinking about how Harry’s lips and tongue had felt just so very right. And she told him no when he asked her again the next day and again two days after that. Though she liked Ron, much more than as a friend and couldn’t help but smile at the way he laughed off her rejections, she just couldn’t bring herself to say yes.

On the seventh day, Harry came to Cho. He told her, in quiet and whispering tones, that Ron would be a great boyfriend and that Cho should know how lucky she was to have him want her. He looked so lonely and miserable, that for the longest time, Cho thought it was because Harry had wanted her too, but was too good of a friend to ever make a move on someone his best and closest friend already wanted.

Then Cho started seeing things, noticing them in a way that she might not have if she hadn’t made it an art form to watch Harry. As much as Harry looked at her, did things for her and was there for her, he did doubly so for Ron. Most people would think it’s something that would be expected – Ron and Harry are best friends – but Cho knows love when she sees it, because she sees it every morning in the mirror. 

Cho sees how Harry looks away, looks back and looks away again when Ron plays with the hair on the back of her neck, or when he kisses her, or when they sit so closely in a booth at the Three Broomsticks that Cho has her legs curled up under her and her cheek resting on Ron’s chest. She sees how Harry shoves his hands in his pockets when Ron’s hair is mussed worse than Harry’s usually is. And she sees how Ron does his own watching, too.

Ron tracks Harry’s movements from across the room when Harry goes off to give them “a little bit of privacy.” He insists on including Harry in anything he can get away with and even when most girlfriends would stomp and fuss about it, Cho agrees. She agrees because she watches Ron watching Harry watching him, even when they are unaware. Cho thinks it might be because she knows who she loves, even if she also knows that she shouldn’t love as many and as much as she does.

 

Cho has spent a lot of time watching and thinking. And Cho has a plan.

The first thing she does is get Ron alone. She grabs him by the tie and drags him into a closet; clichéd, she knows, but effective anyhow. Ron looks pretty damn hopeful, especially when Cho pushes him up against the wall and stands on her toes so she can kiss his neck. But then she pulls away to look him in the eyes, ignoring the way he groans in disappointment. 

“I love you, you know that?” she asks him. 

“Yeah,” he says in a hurry. “And I love you. Can you…?” 

She rolls her eyes at him and smiles. She will go back to what she was doing, but not yet. 

“You trust me, right?” she asks. 

“What?” 

“You trust me,” she insists. “Right?”

“Of course I do, Lady,” he says and tries to pull her back in, but Cho just shakes her head and smiles.

“I’ve got class, Ron,” she says quietly. She kisses him softly, whispering against his lips as she adds, “Later.” 

But later on, Cho manages to keep herself busy and she tells Ron to go spend time with Harry, that she’ll see him tomorrow when they all go to Hogsmeade for the day. Ron scowls, but he listens to her, though Cho knows he’ll only be more insistent tomorrow. This is fine, because Cho has a plan. 

When they’re walking to Hogsmeade, Cho makes sure that Harry is with her and Ron the whole way. She makes sure he stays with them as they get candies and potions supplies – not in the same place, of course – and she makes sure he follows along as she leads the boys to the woods where she and Ron sometimes sneak off to during these day trips. 

Ron looks at her and Cho can tell he’s nervous, but she just smiles at him and doesn’t say anything as they go deeper into the woods. When she decides that they’re far enough away from town, Cho turns to Ron, pulls him against her and kisses him harder than she’s ever kissed him before. 

Harry tries to leave, but Cho knows he’d do this, so she stumbles Ron around so he’s against a big tree and she catches Harry’s wrist in her small hand, pulling him in until she hears Ron’s breath catch at how close Harry is. 

“Stay,” she whispers to Harry, kissing him softly. Harry tries to run and Cho can feel Ron working on deciding whether he should be angry or not, but she just moves her hand up to the back of Harry’s head, keeping him close and moving him around until she can feel the hiss of Ron’s rapid breathing along her hairline. Harry’s face touches Ron’s for an instant… and Cho knows she was right as both boys act like they’ve been hit by electricity, jolting them to life as their lips join each other on and around her mouth. Then Cho pulls back. 

Ron lifts his hand to bring her back, but then Harry sighs against the corner of his mouth, and they are kissing fast and hard and making up for the lost time. They’re making noises; soft, grunting noises that are almost moans. Cho moans all on her own, because she’s pretty sure she’s never seen anything as perfect as what is barely inches away from her face. 

Harry stops kissing Ron all of a sudden, turning to Cho with a confused but happy smile. She can tell he wants to ask her questions, but Cho knows that now is not the time, so she silences him with another kiss as the three of them sink to their knees onto the soft earth. 

Later, when they’re in their usual booth at the Three Broomsticks, they all three cram onto one bench together. Cho smiles to herself as she drinks her butterbeer; Ron has his arm over her shoulder, but he’s using the shadows to hide the fact that it’s Harry’s hair he’s actually playing with while Harry has his hand on Cho’s thigh as he calmly sips his drink and pretends he’s stretching his back when he’s actually leaning into Ron’s fingers. Finally, Harry looks at Cho and asks her why this? Why now? 

Cho smiles at him and turns to kiss Ron before she answers. She takes her time, her tongue lazy as slowly rubs her thigh against Harry’s to let him know that she might as well be kissing him, too. Finally she pulls away from Ron’s mouth and turns back to Harry. 

“ _Because_ ,” she says softly. _“Love.”_

It doesn’t make any sense, but Harry seems to understand anyway. He looks around her to Ron, who clutches at Harry’s shoulder briefly as he nods, pretending he knew this was going to happen all along, even though Harry and Cho can plainly see that Ron is still trying to catch up with having both of what he wants. Harry smiles at them both.

“Yeah,” he says.


End file.
